Ms Amin’s team used the University’s robotic hexapod at Flinders at Tonsley, which simulated a year’s worth of ‘lifting’ a 20kg box, with bending and twisting movements on sections of cadaveric human spine.

The hexapod robot was able to mimic human movements that previously weren’t possible using the standard mechanical testing devices.

The biomedical engineering researchers tracked the disc failure patterns and found that only half of the spines failed via slipped discs, while the others failed via bone injuries.

Advertisement

“The result was interesting. We expected all of the specimens to fail by slipped discs,” says Ms Amin from the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders.

“This leads us to believe there are other motions that can cause a slipped disc, which may be worse than just bending and twisting.”

Further research on other combinations of motions will help us better understand what causes a slipped disc, she adds.

Professor Brian Freeman, Head of Spinal Surgery at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, also worked on this project.